Model Wanted
by StrangeAttractors
Summary: Based on prompt: In a school divided between the haves and have-nots, Paige McCullers is an enigmatic misfit who attracts the attention of one Spencer Hastings. After Paige posts a notice seeking a nude model Spencer is immediately drawn to the idea. But Is she really interested in modeling or simply attracted to spending time with the girl doing her portrait? McHastings.


**A/N: I'm thinking this will be three part. I don't know how quickly I'll be able to update, I'm aiming for once a week (maybe sooner), but please don't hate me if it takes a bit longer. :/ Some of the character are a bit AU, but not too much. Thanks to Elunica-Calemi for the prompt idea! It's such an interesting concept and I'll try and do my best. **

_**I hope you don't mind that I tweaked a bit of the prompt to make it work. I wasn't sure if you wanted a HS or a College setting b/c you wrote "dorm."**_

**Model Wanted (Part 1)**

'_Female Model Wanted_

_ for Saturday Painting Sessions_

_Must be comfortable with nudity.'_

Spencer read the flier exactly three times before she realized she was standing in the middle of the quad like a zombie, as swarms of students bustled around her on their way to classes. She'd been on her way from her Comparative Politics lecture to meet her friends for lunch, when the vibrant yellow sheet caught her eye as it flapped in the wind on the cluttered message board. Spencer wasn't a huge believer in fate but for some she reason couldn't shake the feeling that the flier was somehow calling to her.

Her eyes scanned the to the bottom of the sheet where the artist's name and contact information was hastily scribbled -as if whoever made the flier had forgotten to add it before printing- and her mouth instantly went dry at the sight of the familiar title.

_Paige McCullers._

She hated the way her heart raced at the mere sight of Paige's name on a crinkled piece of paper. It was impossible for her not to know exactly who Paige McCullers was considering Spencer had spent the better part of the last 3 months admiring the mysterious girl from a distance. A distance that was both physical and social considering Paige was a complete loner. From what Spencer could tell -in her infinite skills of observation- Paige didn't keep many friends. Or maybe she simply didn't want any? Whatever the case, Spencer didn't mind that the girl seemed to like her privacy -with the way news traveled around this school- who could blame her? This college was a total fishbowl, where everyone made it their business to know everyone else's business. Most of the students here were just trying to uphold their family's reputation and network with anyone who might put them on the fast track to career success after graduation. Spencer couldn't deny that she was apart of the upper crust crowd, following in the enormous footsteps of her sister Melissa and her overbearing father.

She'd thought getting accepted to such a prestigious school would finally get her family of her back, but it only seemed to fuel their conviction that the pressures they placed on her were effective.

College was supposed to be a time of freedom, a place which nurtured individual identity. It was supposed to be a fresh start where cliques, popularity contests and generational wealth fell second to a hard work ethic and stimulating academia. Yet, here she was 3 weeks into the second half of her Sophomore year and she couldn't help but feel as though she never left Rosewood High.

There was nothing the college grapevine didn't know. Which is how Spencer knew -without ever having a conversation with the Paige- that the girl was the same age as her yet a whole grade beneath her. Or that she was a transfer student with no known community ties, and was rumored to have a spent a year in a Juvenile detention center her Senior year of High School. The water cooler gossip about Paige should have immediately dissuaded Spencer, but instead her enigmatic nature only made Spencer even more curious about her. She was so…_different _from everyone else.

She wasn't sure if it was Paige's confidence, her apathetic attitude to all the rumors surrounding her, the sexy yet strong way she carried herself, or the fact that she might _really _be everything that people claimed she was, but Spencer couldn't get her out of her head.

She glanced back at the yellow flier, quickly checking around her to see if anyone was watching (not that anyone would care), before hastily stuffing the paper into the side of her brown leather messenger bag.

"Hey, Spencer!" She startled at hearing her name, her hand unconsciously falling to her bag where the flier remained, before turning in the direction of the voice. She immediately relaxed when she saw Aria navigating her way through the hoards of students, feeling slightly silly for being so paranoid.

"You're running late too? Hanna and Emily are going to kill us." Aria said with a guilty smile as she came to a halt in front of Spencer.

"Yeah Politics ran long today." Spencer replied with a shrug, knowing that if need be she could talk herself out of any reprimands from her other two friends. "I don't think my professor understands, in the slightest, the importance of fostering an environment that supports a healthy retention level."

Aria's face scrunched up and Spencer knew she'd lost her. "I didn't understand a word of what you just said but that's okay, I'm used to it." She offered Spencer a playful smile as she nudged her in the shoulder and began walking in the direction of the Dining Hall. Spencer followed suit, smiling and nodding at all the right moments as Aria rehashed her day, though in all honesty her thoughts couldn't stop drifting to a certain mysterious painter.

* * *

"You're late."

"It's nice to see you too Hanna." Aria teased, placing her tray on the table next to Hanna and leaving Spencer the seat beside Emily.

"You could've started without us. It's not like we would've minded." Spencer added, grinning at the incredulous expression that formed on Hanna's face.

"And then what? Sit and watch you eat after I'm already finished? No thanks, this is a _group lunch_. Besides, it was only the _two _of us at this table, and it's hard enough getting a date with everyone constantly assuming I'm Emily's girlfriend." Hanna pouted as the other three girls laughed at the accuracy of that statement.

"That happened again?" Aria asked, beginning to unpeel her orange as she watched Hanna with an amused smile. Hanna nodded irritably, finally beginning to eat her own food -which looked cold and unappetizing- before grimacing and dropping her fork back to the table.

"I'm going to heat this up." Hanna said, sliding her chair back and standing to leave. She glanced at Emily's untouched plate and offered her hand to take it. "You want me to heat yours too?" She asked without thinking.

"Sure thing babe." Emily mocked, batting her eyelashes suggestively at a frowning Hanna as the other two girls erupted in laughter.

As Hanna marched away they settled into an easy conversation about their classes and plans for the weekend. That is until the cafeteria doors swung open and in walked Paige.

Try as she might to appear entirely unaffected by the girl's sudden presence, Spencer couldn't stop staring. She knew it was insane the be this consumed by a girl she'd never even spoken to, a girl she _shouldn't _be speaking to, but she couldn't stop the way she felt anymore than she could stop blinking or breathing.

Paige was dressed in a long white cut-off tank, with slim black jeans and black and silver buckled boots that came up to her ankles. Her chestnut hair was straight and fell softly down her back as she moved with a sort of reckless charm that sent Spencer's stomach into knots and made her chest feel warm.

"I can't believe she came back here after what happened last semester." The harshness of Aria's words shook Spencer free of her Paige-induced haze and she turned just in time to see that Aria was also looking at the girl in question.

"What are you talking about?" Spencer asked, trying -and failing- at sounding nonchalant as she asked the question.

"I heard she had an affair with her Art History professor two weeks before Spring break." Aria stated with a surety that made Spencer want to roll her eyes. "Cece told me a student caught the two of them going at it in the sculpture studio. That's why the teacher left. She couldn't handle the backlash from the administration."

"She?" Emily inquired, noting the words Aria used.

Aria nodded. "Yeah, Professor Sorenson. Weird, huh?"

"Not really." Spencer mumbled irritably, poking at her salad as she suddenly lost her appetite. While she did find the news that Paige might be gay encouraging, she also felt unexpectedly defensive of the girl.

"Not really?" Aria asked disbelievingly, confused by Spencer's sudden sour mood. "It's like the biggest scandal of the year." She noted that fact as if that were something to be truly excited about.

"What scandal?" Hanna chose that moment to return to the table, juggling both her and Emily's steaming plates. She slid Emily's plate in front of her before reclaiming her chair and digging into her own.

"Paige McCullers." Was Emily's simple response, as if the name alone should fill in all the blanks of what they were previously discussing. Unlike Aria and Hanna she didn't seem very interested in the direction of the conversation but was merely answering Hanna so that she wouldn't be out of the loop.

"Oh. Are you talking about the fire she started at her old High School?" Hanna guessed wrongly, spearing a steamed carrot and popping it into her mouth. "I heard two kids had to be rescued from the roof by firemen. That girl is dangerous."

Spencer cringed internally, trying her best to keep her frustrations silent as she listened to the rumors spewing from her friends mouths. None of them knew Paige and none of them had the right to speculate about her life. It just wasn't right. Her friends were honestly great people, but they weren't immune to the judgments and undeserved values placed on status and reputation at this school.

"Spence, you okay?" Emily asked, noting the girl's silence and the death grip she now had on her fork.

"Yeah, I'm fine Em." Spencer replied tersely before standing and picking up her tray. "I'm gonna head back to my dorm. There's a little too much hot-air being blown at this table." She cast a pointed glance to Hanna and Aria before leaving, ignoring the confused expressions each of them wore as she ditched her tray on the rack.

She was so worked up over what happened that she hadn't even noticed Paige had taken the empty table a few feet away and overheard everything. As she walked towards the exit Paige's eyes darted up to meet hers, holding them for an intense few seconds before a soft smirk slowly graced her lips. Spencer was so surprised by the gesture that she didn't even think to return it until she was already out in the hallway, her heart beating a mile a minute. She pressed her palms to her cheeks trying to cool the flush to her face as she slowly made her way to her dorm, replaying Paige's smile over and over again in her mind.

Suddenly Saturday painting sessions didn't sound like such a bad idea.

TBC…

**A/N: Don't you just love the irony of Aria gossiping about an affair with a Professor? Just had to put that one in there. ;)**


End file.
